A GaN-based film is suitably used as a substrate and a semiconductor layer in a semiconductor device such as a light emitting device and an electronic device. A GaN substrate is best as a substrate for manufacturing such a GaN-based film, from a point of view of match or substantial match in lattice constant and coefficient of thermal expansion between the substrate and the GaN-based film. A GaN substrate, however, is very expensive, and it is difficult to obtain such a GaN substrate having a large diameter that a diameter of a main surface exceeds 2 inches.
Therefore, a sapphire substrate is generally used as a substrate for forming a GaN-based film. A sapphire substrate and a GaN crystal are significantly different from each other in lattice constant and coefficient of thermal expansion.
Therefore, in order to mitigate unmatch in lattice constant between a sapphire substrate and a GaN crystal and to grow a GaN crystal having good crystallinity, for example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 04-297023 discloses forming a GaN buffer layer on a sapphire substrate and growing a GaN crystal layer on the GaN buffer layer, in growing GaN crystal on the sapphire substrate.
In addition, in order to obtain a GaN film less in warpage by employing a substrate having a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of GaN crystal, for example, Japanese National Patent Publication No. 2007-523472 discloses a composite support substrate having one or more pairs of layers having substantially the same coefficient of thermal expansion with a central layer lying therebetween and having an overall coefficient of thermal expansion substantially the same as a coefficient of thermal expansion of GaN crystal.